Car-coupling.



J. DUBOIS 6t J. E. JONES.

CAR COUPLING;

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 3. 1914.

LlLQUl. Patented Nov. 23, 1915. V

JAMES DUBOIS AND JOHN E. JONES, OF WESTVILLE, ILLINOIS.

CAR-COUPLING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 23, 1915.

Application filed June 3, 1914. Serial No. 842,582.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JAMES Donors and J OHN E. Jones, citizens of'theUnited States, residing at VVestville, county of Vermilion, State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Car-Cow plings, and declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same,'reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

Our invention has for its object to produce a coupler especially adapted for mining cars and the like which shall consist of a few strong simple parts, shall be capable of coupling automatically when two cars are brought together, and be capable of being readily placed in a condition to couple automatically.

The various features of novelty whereby our invention is characterized will hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but, for a full understanding of our invention and of its object and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side view of one member of the coupler ready 'to be automatically coupled to the cooperating member; Fig. 2 is a side view of the other member of the coupler; Fig. 3 is a plan view of the device shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a plan view of the device shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a view looking toward the left from the right hand side of Fig.3; Fig. 6 is a view looking toward the right from the left hand side of Fig. 41:; and Fig. 7 is a section taken approximately on line 77 of Fig. 2.

In carrying out our invention, we employ a flexibly connected link, together with means for loosely supporting it in such a position that it may be engaged by a hook member on an adjacent car and be automatically dropped into coupling relation to the hook.

For the sakeof brevitywe have illustrated our invention as embodied only in a single simple form; but it will of course beunderstood that our invention, broadly considered, may take various other forms.

Referring to the drawing, 1 represents a draw bar having at the front thereof an upwardly-projecting nose, 2, the top of which passing horizontally through the is inclined downwardly and rearwardly, pregerably along a curved line as indicated at v 4 is a clevis which embraces the draw bar just beneath the nose and is secured to the draw bar by an elongated bolt or pin, 5, clevis and the draw bar.

6 is the main coupling link which may be connected to the clevis by means of an in termediate link 7, thus securing the coupling link flexibly to the draw bar. The link 6 maybe of any desired size and shape, but should be so proportioned with respect to the remaining elements of the coupler member of which it forms a part, that when it is hung upon the nose as indicated in the drawing, it rests at its rear side against a suitable forwardly-facing abutment on the draw bar, the abutment serving as a fulcrum about which the link will swing when its lower end is struck by a cooperating coupler member. In the arrangement shown, the coupling link is made quite large and the front end of the draw bar quite narrow and therefore the bolt 5 is elongated so that the two ends of the bolt itself serve as the abutment; and the link assumes an inclined position with its lower end well in advance of the front end of the draw bar when hung upon the nose.

Cooperating with the coupler member just described is a suitable hook member which is adapted to strike the lower end of the coupling link 6 when the latter occupies the position illustrated in the drawings and swing the coupling link upon its fulcrum until it passes off the front end of the nose and then drops down into coupling relation with the hook member. In the drawing the hook member is indicated at 8 and is illustrated as being in the form of a draw bar having a suitably shaped hook at the front end and a downwardly-projecting web, 9, beneath'the hook forthe purpose of affording a comparatively deep striking face some portion of which will be certain to strike the advance portion of the coupling link when the two cars are brought together, notwithstanding that the two draw barsthemselves may be somewhat out of alinement with each other in the vertical direction.

One of the difliculties experienced with the use of an open hook and a cooperating link is that when the two draw bars are close together so that the link is not under tension and is simply hanging free, the link sometimes jumps up out of the hook while'the cars are traveling over a rough piece of track and thus causes the cars to be uncoupled. One of the features of our invention consists in so shaping the hook member of the coupler that the link can not accidentally jump out and release itself when hanging idle. This is accomplished by shaping the hook so that it will lit with reasonable snug ness about the link and forming little pockets, as indicated at 10, at the sides of the horizontal supporting surface on which the link rests these pockets being adapted to fit curvature of the link and prevent the link from being pushed rearwardly as long as it hangs down, because in order to move rearwardly the link would have to rise vertically to clear the pockets, and such vertical 'm'ovementis prevented by the overlying por- 'tion of the hook.

7 Of course when the link is swung around so as to be horizontal, no

portion lies within the pocketsand therefore it may be pushed back far enough to permit it to be raised out of the mouth of the hook.

v The pockets 10 may conveniently be formed b sim l curvin the horizontal uawardl e a: y facing bearing surface 1n the hook to correspond'to the curvature of the link as indicated in Fig. 7. From Fig. 7 it is evident that the link, when hanging down cannot be pushed rearwardly, and it is also evident that when the link is swung into a horizontal position its lower side lies in a plane wholly above the pockets.

It will thus be seen that we have produced a simple and novel coupler consisting of only a few strong durable parts, which will perunit a coupling to be automatically made without making it necessary for the work- 'men to do more than throw the coupling link over the supporting nose on the draw bar in order to place the parts in position to couple automatically. It will also be seen that we have produced an arrangement which permits the use of a plain link and an open hook without danger that the link will jump out of the hook when the tension on the coupler is relieved.

We claim:

1.In combination, a draw bar, a link flexiblyconnected to the draw bar, means lar positionso as to cause it to drop down upon the hook.

2. In combination, a draw bar, a link, a

flexible member connected at one end to the link and at the other end to the draw bar, means on the draw bar for loosely supporting the link at the front end, independently of the said flexible member, and for allowing the link to drop when it is shifted into a predetermined angular position, and a complementary coupling member adapted to engage with the link and shift it into said predetermined angular position so as to cause it to drop thereon.

3. In combination, two members to be coupled, a link flexibly connected to one of said members, means for loosely suspending the link independently of its flexible con nection and for permitting the'link to drop when it is shifted on its supports into a pre determined angular position, and means on the second of said members for engaging with the link when loosely supported on the other member and shifting it into said predetermined angular position so as to cause it to drop, and means on said second member for engaging with said link when it drops upon the second member.

4-. In combination, a hook, a draw bar, a link flexibly connected to the draw bar, and means for loosely supporting the link on the draw bar at an angle to the horizontal and in a position to be engaged by the hook and be swung over the latter when the hook and the draw bar are brought together.

5. In combination, a coupler member comprising a draw bar, a link flexibly connected to the draw bar, means on the draw bar for loosely suspending the link at the front of the same in an inclined position with the lower end of the link in advance, and a hook member adapted to strike the lower end of the link and cause the upper end to swing forward over the hook when the hook and the draw bar are brought together.

6. In combination, a draw bar, a link flexibly connected to the draw bar, a support for the link on the front end of the draw bar, an abutment on the draw bar for engaging with the rear side of the link when it is resting on said support, and a coupler hook having a part adapted to strike said link and swing it on said abutment until it is free from said support and drops upon the hook when the hook and draw bar are brought together.

7. In combination, a draw bar having at its front end an upwardly-projecting nose and a forwardly-facin abutment below the nose, a link flexibly connected to the head and adapted to be hung on said nose with its rear side resting against said abutment, and a hook having a part adapted to strike the link and swing it on said abutment until it is free of thenose and drops down over the hook when the hook and draw bar are brought together.

8. In combination, a draw bar having at the front end an upwardly-projecting nose and a forwardly-facing abutment below the lll' nose, the upper edge of the nose being gradually inclined downwardly from the front to the rear, a link flexibly connected to the draw bar and adapted to be hung on said nose with its rear side resting against said abutment, and a hook having a part adapted to strike the link and turn it on said abutment until the upper end of the link is clear of the nose and free to drop down over the hook when the hook and draw bar are brought together.

9. In combination, a coupler hook, a link adapted to be received by said hook, said hook having a seat adapted to interlock with the link when the latter hangs vertically to 15 prevent the disengagement of the link from the hook and leave the link free to be moved out of the hook when the link is in a horizontal position.

In testimony whereof, we sign this speci- 20 fication in the presence of two witnesses.

JAMES DUBOIS. JOHN E. JONES. Witnesses:

ED. KOEPKE, GAN CARPENTER.

fiopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, I). G. I 

